Many passenger seats such as those on passenger aircraft, buses, trains, and the like are arranged so that each passenger seat, other than the forward-most located passenger seats, faces the back of the next forward passenger seat. To increase a passenger's comfort, many passenger seat backs rotate between upright and reclined positions.
In some instances, a tray table may be mounted adjacent the back of each passenger seat for use by a passenger in the next aft passenger seat. The tray table is deployed by the passenger to provide a relatively flat surface for eating, working, recreation, or other uses.
In many conventional uses, the tray table may be mounted to the back of each passenger seat via a pair of retractable arms that allow the tray table to be pulled toward the passenger when deployed.
As shown in FIGS. 4A-4C, in a conventional configuration, a tray table 400 includes barrier layers as the upper 401 and lower 402 outer layers. Between the barrier layers 401 and 402, the tray table 400 also includes filler material 403, plastic supports 404, and a heat exchanger 405. The filler material may be, for example, an injected polyurethane foam material. There are numerous manufacturing concerns and problems related to foam including, for example, (1) significant scrap rates (leading to increases in manufacturing time and raw material cost), (2) extended manufacturing cycle times (due to curing, cooling, and inspecting the foam), (3) excess infrastructure and machine resources for both physical space and machine costs (e.g., foam manufacturing may require foam machines, ovens, cleaning stations, spray booth stations, mold racks, and molds), (4) increased human capital and labor costs, (5) high inspection failure rates due to delamination and/or warpage, (6) issues related to certification, and (7) health concerns.
To the extent the aforementioned problems are related to foam (i.e., filler material 403), these problems are eliminated by the current invention. The exploded assembly shown in FIG. 4C includes four components (filler material 403, two plastic supports 404, and a heat exchanger 405) that can all be replaced by a single support structure 105 (described in more detail below). In certain cases, replacing this group of components with support structure 105 results in (1) a raw material cost savings of more than $2 for every tray table assembly and/or (2) more than 20% reduction in weight compared to the group of components described above.
In certain situations, it may be desirable to eliminate filler material from tray tables to increase manufacturing efficiency and to reduce costs, while also providing a lightweight and durable tray table.